A svelter Ron Funches is more confident, just as brilliantly slothy

If a human-sized, African-American male sloth hit the road as a comic, he would probably sound a bit like Ron Funches.

This is in no way a knock. Funches cultivates that on-stage persona, which was out in full force during his 10:30 set at Cap City Comedy Club Friday night as part of the Moontower Comedy and Oddity Festival.

Ron Funches (there is less of him now)

Of course, the first thing long-term Funches fans noticed when the 33-year old Funches hits the stage these days is how much less of him there is.

Dude lost about 100 lbs and he has no problem incorporating that into his always-laconically-delivered act, noting that he lost the weight “out of spite” because his medical marijuana doctor wouldn’t take his health concerns seriously.

The 50 minute set ranged from how charity really is the best way to waste money (“I have no idea what happens to it”), his fondness for conspiracy theories to being the single dad of an increasingly bitchy 13-year old boy who “Winne-the-Pooh”s when he eats. (Not a joke about honey, but outstanding nonetheless.)

There was a longer riff about a fight in an illegal Canadian weed dispensary — “I didn’t know you cold get in a fight in Canada; I thought they outlawed everything bigger than a kerfuffle.”

That line is a good example of why he appeals: a slightly surreal, off-kilter delivery and point of view paired with sentences that sound slightly more elaborate than they should be. Add in a string of strong jokes about rappers that played straight into the hands of 90s hip-hop head, the best Maya Angelou joke anyone has ever heard and his eternal fondness for weed and it was easy to see exactly why his audience is increasingly cult-like.

Austin comic Bob Khosravi middled with a solid set that drew on his Middle Eastern heritage, weirdly good jokes about olives and an extended bit about how your friends children change your life as much as theirs. Host/opener Daniel Webb has a typically all over the place set, marked largely by his manic energy and queeny delivery. (I will, however, give him money to move the “gay Jesus” stuff from the middle to the top of the set — it was his tightest material and deserved to be up front.)

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